Under the Night Sky
by AWanderersHaven
Summary: Traditional girl gets dropped in Middle-Earth, with a twist. NOT Legomance or 10th walker.
1. Chapter 1

"Help!" Josh is trying to kill me!"

"Jake, play nice." I sighed, annoyed. I was babysitting two of my younger brother's friends at the pool. It seemed like these two just could not get along.

"But Josh is…" Jake persisted. He was probably upset that I wasn't taking his side.

"I know, Jake." I interrupted. "You said that already. Now play nice, it won't be long before your brother gets here."

"Aw, man." The boys both whined.

"Get over it." I said rolling my eyes, as I turned back to my book. As I looked up, I noticed really dark storm clouds coming closer to the pool.

I sort of enjoyed watching Jake and Josh, but about three hours of them together would be enough for anyone to consider homicide.

Being a senior in high school, it was hard for me to find a job that my parents would be willing to let me have, but being home schooled let me have more freedom than many other kids had.

"Are you goin' out with Jeremy tonight?" Josh asked a few minutes later.

"What?" I said, "Who told you I was gonna go out with your brother?"

Jake and Josh's older brother, Jeremy, was a year older than me. He was kind of cute, if you looked at that sort of thing.

He actually was a little annoying, he always wanted to sit beside me in church, help me with my homework, and generally make a nuisance of himself.

"I heard him tell one of his friends that he was gonna ask if you wanted to go out with him." Josh said.

"He hasn't asked and I probably will say no." I said, ending this conversation.

"Boys!" I called a few minutes later, after a flash of lightening. "Time to get out!"

As they grumbled, I turned to pick up their towels and I saw their brother Jeremy pulling into the parking lot.

"Hey, Claira! How's it goin'?" Jeremy called to me from the car.

Annoying much? "Hey, Jeremy." I sighed back, waving him off. I really didn't want to deal with him right then. I just wanted to go home and take a nice long nap.

When I turned back towards the pool, a chill wind picked up. It was then that I got a really bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.

"Boys! You need to get out NOW!" I yelled at them.

As Jeremy was walking toward the pool, a bright blue-white light flashed, and everything went black.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Thank you to _Manny Maarie_, _Stormblossom_, and _One and one makes what_ for your reviews. You make my day.

And in answer to your review, Manny Maarie. Being homeschooled and being in high school are not exclusive. You can homeschool through high school and still be excepted to a college or university. I, myself, have been homeschooled from the beginning and am a senior in high school. I will graduate in May and go to college in the fall.

Anyway, thanks for the reviews!

Chapter Two

The first thing I felt was pain. Pain in my head…pain in my arms…pain in my legs…did I mention the dwarf hammering away in my head?

After what seemed like forever, I finally figured out that I was lying down. Okay, I'm lying down. Next question, why?

I remembered being at the pool. Jeremy had just gotten there. The boys were just…

The boys!

I opened my eyes and tried to sit up. Pain exploded like a grenade in my skull.

"Whoa. Easy there," someone nearby said, and a strong hand eased me back down. It sounded almost like Jeremy.

I blinked my eyes open. There was a guy kneeling over me. I could tell he had dark blond hair, but I couldn't see much else. He sort of looked like Jeremy.

"Jeremy?" I tried to say, but ended up croaking.

"Here," he said gently, holding a cup of water to my lips.

"Thanks," I said.

I looked up at him and realized that it wasn't Jeremy. Seeing this, I looked around and saw that I was in a small camp with about a half dozen men. Their clothes looked like something you might see at a Renn fair, brown tunics and green gray leggings.

Apparently, I wasn't in Kansas anymore. Not that I was to begin with.

"What is your name, my lady?" the blond guy asked.

"Claira. My name is Claira," I said slowly, "What happened?"

"We found you, unconscious, yester evening," he said. "We found no sign of anyone else. We were hoping you could tell us what happened?"

"I was babysitting two young boys at the swimming pool," I said, trying to remember. "Their older brother had just gotten there. I…I can't remember anything else."

I looked around confused. "Where am I?"

"We are about 20 miles out from Amon Din."

"Amon Din?!" I exclaimed. Oh, crap! That must mean that I'm in Gondor. Wait a second. Amon Din is a fictional place in a fictional story.

"Yes. I take it you're not from around here?" the blond guy said.

"No, sir," I said, thinking fast. I couldn't tell him that I was from another world. He wouldn't believe it. "I'm from the south. From a small village called Woodleaf." That, at least, was true.

It was at this point that my stomach decided to notify me that it was empty. I blushed.

The blond guy laughed. "How long has it been since you last ate?"

"At least yesterday morning."

"Lukkon," he called. A dark haired man looked up.

"Yes, milord."

"Bring some stew." Turning back to me, the blond guy said, "It's not much, but it's filling."

"Thank you, sir."

Lukkon brought the stew over. The blond guy (I really needed to find out his name) was sort of right. There wasn't much in the stew, but it was really good. Or it might have just been my empty stomach. I didn't, and still don't, want to know what kind of meat was in it, but it tasted good.

"What's your name, sir?" I asked the blond guy after the first bite.

"Boromir," he said simply.

What the flip?!?! Boromir!

My surprise must have shown on my face.

"Yes, I am Boromir," he sighed, apparently not surprised that I was.

"The Captain-General of all of Gondor's forces," one man said.

"The heir to the Steward of Gondor," another chimed in.

"Gondor's Champion," Lukkon added.

"The Bear of Gondor," said another.

"All right," Boromir growled, clearly amused by all this. "That's enough. Run up to the Black Gate and rub their faces in it, why don't ya."

I said, "You remind me so much of my brothers and father," trying not to laugh.

"They were this bad, too?" Boromir asked, as he headed to get some stew for himself.

I snorted in laughter, "Oh yes. They will play word games with everything anyone says. I have found that I do the same thing."

Taking sip of my stew, I looked up and found Boromir looking intently at me.

When I had finished my stew, Boromir came back over to me.

"Feeling better?" he asked. I nodded. "Tomorrow we're going to continue on to Minas Tirith."

I was apprehensive at this point. What happened? What happened to my world? Was I dreaming? Hallucinating? Was I dead?

"You're going to ride behind Bragir. If we make good time, we should be there tomorrow evening. Once there, we should be able to get you back home."

"Thanks for all your help," I said, looking down.

"Only what is expected of me." Boromir replied.

Everyone was settling down for the night. It looked like they had already set the watch for the night.

I was worried. Boromir hadn't said anything about my strange clothes or my accent. He may wait until we get to Minas Tirith before questioning me. I was NOT looking forward to that.

I couldn't go to sleep that night. So may thoughts and worries running through my head it wasn't funny. As it got darker, it got colder. Since it was the beginning of September back home, it might be the same here.

It didn't freeze, but I felt like I was. Boromir brought another blanket and covered me up some more.

"Thanks." I said, finally warming up some.

"You're welcome."

As I got warmer, I was able to finally fall asleep. Then came the first dream.

It was really strange. I could hear Jeremy telling me everything would be fine. He sounded worried or concerned about something.

The dream was very vague and not very long, but it still scared me. What was going on?

----------

The next morning, everyone else got up before dawn, about 5:30 by my watch. They let me sleep longer.

"Claira," Boromir said, bringing a bag over to me. "We found this next to you. Do you recognize it?"

"Yes. It's mine." I said, taking them from him.

It was the bag I carry everywhere with me. It basically was my survival bag. I had everything I needed to survive in the wilderness or babysitting. It had my copy of the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit. Now, that would be interesting to explain.

"Everything alright?" Boromir asked.

"Yes," I said, trying not to panic. "Everything is here."

"Good," he said. "We need to get going."

We were riding in half an hour. These soldiers knew how to get up and go. I was behind the blue-eyed, brown haired Bragir.

I bet it wasn't even 20 minutes before I heard the first shouts, warning us of an ambush. Great, just great. Only my first full day and already we were under attack. Granted, at the same time I heard the shouts, Bragir urged his horse into a gallop and I was busy hanging on for dear life. I prayed that this would be over soon.

As I prayed, something sharp and jagged cut along my right arm. I shouted in pain and loosened my hold on Bragir. As I started to slide off his horse, Bragir grabbed my arm.

Just a few minutes later, though it felt a like hours, we stopped in a small copse of trees. Apparently, Bragir and Lukkon had ridden ahead, away from the fight.

Lukkon jumped of his horse and helped me down. I was trying not to cry and to fight the gray spots in my eyes. My arm HURT!

Lukkon sat me on the ground and started looking at the cut.

"It's deep," he said.

"And it hurts like crap," I responded through clenched teeth. "Not that I have a point of reference."

"I don't either," he said. "This is going to sting a little bit."

He poured some water over my arm. It stung more than a little bit. More like a lot.

I gasped, "A little bit! Right, and the cut is not that big, I'm only gonna lose my arm."

"Not if I have anything to do with it," said Boromir. The rest of the troop had arrived while I was otherwise occupied.

"How bad is it?" Boromir asked, kneeling next to Lukkon.

"It hurts like crap," I said before anyone else could respond. "And it burns like someone is holding a hot iron to it."

I'm not sure what exactly happened next, 'cause I sort of passed out. I remember someone calling my name, but I was too sleepy to answer.

I woke up to the pounding of my arm and of hooves. I looked up blearily. I was on a horse, in front of someone, and we were going at what felt like an all-out gallop.

My mouth felt really dry and my tongue was stuck to the roof of my mouth. I really wanted some water. I moaned a little to try to catch the rider's attention. The horse stopped and I could hear who ever it was behind saying something, but it was like I had ear muffs on. I felt a water skin pressed to my lips and I drank as much as I could without choking before the other person pulled it away.

Whoever was behind me started speaking again, but I could still only hear a little of what he said. "…on…little longer…alright."

Then I passed out again.


End file.
